Saints and Souls

For the other side of the word, it's halloween time. For another part, it would just be another boring/busy/uneventful/exciting day. But for the Philippines and the Filipinos, it's All Saint's/Soul's Day.

Why the slash? Like many things in the Philippines, both events are confused or mixed by the common Filipino. Anyway, as most of us here in the Philippines are Catholic Christians, we celebrate these days the traditional way.

Catholic teaching guides that November 1 be held as the day for all the Saints, the day after, November 2 will be for all the Souls. Filipino's on the other hand celebrate both on November first. I don't know exactly how it all started, but theories have it that people think cemeteries go too crowded on the 2nd so they go there on the 1st, a practice which later became a tradition. Who really knows?

Public cemeteries look like picnic grounds (on the extreme side - amusement parks). Interestingly, the people gone before us become bonds that keep together the living. These days become days of reunion, reflection, and (extended) family bonding. It's a time when one's great grandfather is visted by his dozen sons and daughters, their own sons and daughters, and their own sons and daughters (so on and so forth until the you can't see the tombstone amidst the heads that gather round). That's how we remember our dead, we celebrate together as a family. I forgot to mention that great granpa's brothers and sisters and cousins and their families might be coming too!

We deeply believe in the afterlife and the promises held by it. We believe that we continue to exist after we have left the material world and that our continuing communion through prayer strengthen and help us in this short sojourn. As Christ has died and risen, we believe we will also die and rise. But while we are living, we live and exist with the help of the prayers of our dead loved ones as we too pray for them. That is how God's family relate to one another.

Today, we remember, the good and the bad. We remember loved ones, lost and found. We remember the times, happy and sad. As a people, Filipinos find strength in the memory of a loved one, build strength among the living, and foster strength for the generations to come.

Open Source Software

Open source software is one of the best things in the free world (I mean independent world here) because its free!

Fr. Julian Fox, the previous provincial of the Aussie Salesian Province advocated the use of open source software. Looking up from his laptop when I asked him if he tried to use Microsoft Outlook in sending his austraLasia news in volumes, he pursed his lips and said "It's against my principles".

Fr. Julian, or Foxy as he calls himself, is one of the staunch supporter of the free software world. He gave me several reasons why we should migrate from proprietary (bought/licensed) software to open source:

1. For standardization - open source software developers ally themselves to international standards for inter-compatibility. You can be sure that data saved in internationally accepted data format will be supported in the future as it is now. Talk about archiving.

2. Morality - free softwares saves you from piracy. No fee, no piracy.

3. Practicality - this is important when you're in an organization and everyone needs to use some software power. Volume licensing may be at a discounted price however the price remains high compared to free software.

These are really valid arguments if you are to ask me. I use some of these open source software too. However, I should note that proprietary softwares are "packed with more features" since the giant software companies have the financial resources to pour. But nevertheless the developers in the free software world are as talented and innovative. Talk about intercontinental collaboration!

So in choosing which software to use I often select through the price and feature criteria. If one is free that would suit my tech needs then it receives my favor. But free is still the best.

Aha! My First Aha!

Aha! This is my first Aha! Among the many technologies available in the network, blogging has caught my attention but not my interest until now. I've heard of many stories about the glory of blogging changing the way people think about plain stupid things to deeply profound and complex topics. I've known many who write their own blogs and people who read other people's blogs for entertainment. Finally, the wave of blogging technology caught me.

I had several reasons not to blog. First, I already have my own personal diary (journal as we call it in formation). I write on it everytime we have our meditation sessions. Next, blogging helps kill my handwriting. Though it is faster, typing has the side effect of dulling the curves of your writing. Lastly, I thought that no one would read my blogs. But weighing once more these reasons, I finally said to myself, "Who cares? I'll blog for the fun of it!"

I would like to thank all the delegates of the Social Communication departments from all over East Asia Oceania and South Asia Regions of the Salesians of Don Bosco for somewhat triggering my excitement again for publishing and writing. Fr. Dennis Miem, SDB and Fr. Randy Figuracion, SDB in particular made me rethink blogging with the sharings about blogging they made on our dinner table.

I know I won't be frequent or consistent in my blogs, but again, who cares? Afterall AHA! I know I have a thing for blogging.